Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur said there was good participation from foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

The blockbuster NTPC stake sale, on Thursday, fetched the government Rs.11,500 crore, the second PSU share sale in a week that was over-subscribed, helping to move closer to the Rs.30,000-crore disinvestment target.

The share sale of the country’s largest power producer, NTPC, was over-subscribed 1.7 times as an offer price lower than the scrip’s trading rate on stock exchanges received tremendous interest from foreign investors.

Coming within a week of the share sale of Oil India, the NTPC issue was also lapped up by foreign investors in a big way, making the government say there is still a huge demand for PSU shares in the market.

The total demand received for the offer was 132.84 crore shares, which is 1.7 times over the 78.32 crore shares or 9.5 per cent stake on the block.

The government had fixed the floor price or the minimum offer price at Rs.145 a share. The indicative price, which is the weighted average price of all valid bids, came in at Rs.145.91 at the close of the auction.

“The government is satisfied with the response to the NTPC offer. We expect more than Rs.11,500 crore from the issue,” Disinvestment Secretary Ravi Mathur said.

what the hell is happening!!! one of the maharatna company's shares are being sold out, reducing government's stake to almost below 75%, which would mean losing power to pass special resolutions i.e. effectively losing important control functions, and none of the opposition parties even utter a single word!!!